What is on your mind?

When it comes to spiritual warfare it is very important to check what is on your mind. What type of thoughts are constantly going through your mind? What are you thinking about everyday or most of the time? What issues are your pondering upon? With what are you keeping yourself busy with? What “data” are you processing in your mind.

This is very important. We all have certain God given abilities irrespective of who we are. One of the most important facts to remember is that all human beings were created into the image of God. That makes us different from all other living creatures. We all have the ability to create. Like the Creator of all things that exist, God Almighty, we also have the ability to create. People create new things all the time. It is all in us just waiting to come to life or to come into existence. That is what we are and that is what we do. Sometimes it takes an effort to create something, especially the good things. People creating all those beautiful paintings or those beautiful sculptures really dig deep into their resources of creativity in order to bring those pieces of art into existence.

Just think of a writer writing a book. It takes time and it really takes creative thinking to write a best seller. What is more enjoyable and moreself‐sufficient than writing a good book that changes people’s lives?

Some things are easier to create but may involve more efforts and more work from a lot of people to bring into existence. Engineers and building contractors building a new bridge or a skyscraper come to mind. Still, even a concrete structure created by human beings can be a wonderful piece of art.

What does all this have to do with spiritual warfare? Everything! You see, like God, human beings create with their minds. Everything that we see around us started with a thought. Somebody thought of something and eventually that thought brought that thing that he thought about into existence. A lot of things happen after the initial thought but the bottom line is, that thought eventually became a word and the word caused actions. These actions eventually caused the final product to exist. Actions bring reality, although it started off with a mere thought.

These things are important because it determines not only our physical circumstances but also our spiritual circumstances. It lays out new journeys that we continuously embark upon. It determines our future. It determines who we will become one day. That is why we read in the book of Proverbs that man is what he thinks:

Proverbs 23:7

For as he (man) thinketh in his heart, so is he…

You really become what you think! That can only imply that what we think does influence us tremendously. How does it influence us? It influences us because we have the ability to say what we think. This is the big and the very important mystery about the ability of all mankind. Because we have been created into the image of God, we also have that same ability that God has. We can also speak! Like God we can also speak things into existence!

Romans 4:17

...and calleth those things which be not as though they were

This is exactly how God created the universe; He just spoke everything into existence:

Genesis 1:3

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light

That is exactly how God created the whole universe. He created everything by speaking it into existence. We cannot create things with our words like God can but when it comes to spiritual matters we can.

Luke 17:6

And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you

Matthew 21:21

Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

It is important to understand that we must speak the word of God in faith. When we believe what we say, what we say will eventually come into existence. Unfortunately this principle also applies to negative words of unbelief. If we really believe negative things, we start saying or confessing those negative things. Eventually those negative words, will bring those negative things that we confess, into existence. If we believe what we think we actually speak those things into existence. This is how our fears become a reality in our lives.

Job 3:25

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me

Many people do not understand this all important truth. They just cannot get it that this whole business of speaking negative things really is bad for us. They hear people preaching these truths but they just do not get it. They really do not believe this! That is why even Christians are continuing the bad habit of just recklessly thinking what they want and recklessly saying what they want. We actually expose ourselves to toxic thoughts that result in us speaking toxic words which bring toxic things into existence.

Because of this recklessness and this ignorance, undisciplined people pay dearly. There is just not the necessary caution, pertaining to thinking and speaking, that people should have. They think and they gossip and they say things recklessly just as they want to. People speak their minds without realizing the consequences. Unfortunately all these negative words always have its affects on our lives. It creates our future. It brings a whole lot of trouble our way. Why, because we always believe what we say. The fact that we have said something is the proof that we believe it. Nobody just say something unless they believe it. This principle applies to everybody, believers and unbelievers.

Thoughts are always initiated by someone. Thoughts come into existence by evil spirits, by other people, by ourselves and by God. We as human beings have the ability however, to reject all those thoughts. We do not have to accept any thought unless we want to ponder on certain specific thoughts. We get to choose! It is our God given ability. This is a very important principle in the kingdom of God.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ

There it is, we have control over our thoughts. We can “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”. This tells us that we really should control our thoughts. We should actually replace negative thoughts with the word of God. We should be disciplined when it comes to this aspect of our faith walk with Christ. This changes everything!

The other day I received a message from one of my friends. This brother really loves Christ and he really loves all peoples and all nations. He was called as a missionary to preach the gospel of Christ all over Africa.

The text message I received from this guy however, was actually very negative. He felt very negative towards his own people, the white Afrikaner nation. In this message he was complaining about all sorts of things pertaining to the white Afrikaner nation. He compared the white Afrikaner nation to the nations where he ministered and he had all sorts of bad things to say about our own nation.

I could not understand why this was such an issue to him. To be honest, I do not even think about these things and to me there is nothing to be complaining about. In fact, I do not complain about anything pertaining to any nation that walk this earth. I am a Christian. I belong to Christ. Although I am part of the white Afrikaner nation I am first and foremost from the family of God. I am not from this world. I actually treat and judge all nations the same. That includes my own nation. To me the white Afrikaner nations is just like any other nation that walk this earth. To me there is no difference. The Afrikaner nation needs Christ just as much as any other nation do.

Is the Afrikaner nation bad in comparison to other nations? No, not at all. When I compare the white Afrikaner nation with other nations I am actually very proud of this little nation.

To me this nation is at the very top when it comes to the way we live. We are a Christian nation and we really have some good people in this nation. Although we are not perfect we really keep high moral standards and we really treat other people very well. We do love other nations. The level of racism within the white Afrikaner nation is probably lower than most nations right across the world today. I think we came a long way since 1994. Is there anything to complain about pertaining to our nation? Probably but we are no worse than other nations. I really think we are actually doing very well as a nation.

My question pertaining to this aspect is, why is my brother in Christ wasting his time harboring all these negative thoughts about this? What purpose does this have? Is there any good in this?

Sometimes I see and hear people talk about and complaining about the state of economic affairs in the country. They talk about the high cost of living and they talk about all the difficulties putting food on the table, maintaining a roof over their heads and facing all the financial challenges that they have to face everyday. I also hear people complaining about the challenges getting their children through school and through college. They are constantly talking and they are constantly thinking about the challenges of life, making a living and raising their children.

Many people have many sleepless nights pondering about these things?

What is all this complaining and all this thinking do for us? Why are we harboring all these negative thoughts? Lets face it, these thoughts are all negative thoughts that influence us negatively. It causes fear, it causes doubt and it causes unbelief. It causes us to believe certain things and it causes us to say certain things. These are the very thoughts that we should actually bring under captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Paul so many times tells us in the Scripture not to worry about these things. The Bible so many times tells us not to fear. It tells us not to regard all these negative things. We really do not have to ponder on these things at all. We need to spend our time meditating the word of God and to seek God’s face in prayer.

Matthew 6:25-34

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

This Scripture is as clear as daylight about the ways of God when it comes to these things. It says over and over, “take no thought” for or about these things. Why should we not think about these things? Because when we think about these things we open doors of doubt and unbelief in our lives. We start to doubt and we start to fear. In the process we are opening ourselves up to temptations. We are tempted to do something about these things. We make our own plans. We do things built upon unbelief and fear. We are tempted to say things that are contrary to the word of God. We say negative things and these negative things bring negative situations into existence. Exactly what we have feared came over us. We became what we feared. We became what we thought.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”

“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me”

I think we all understand that thinking about all sorts of negative things is not good for us. What are we actually supposed to do then? It is all about focus. Lana Vawser answers this question so beautifully:

A THRONE ROOM ENCOUNTER WHERE JESUS GIVES PURITY A GIFT

Last year I had an open vision in my quiet time where I was taken to heaven and shown a mansion that was being prepared for a saint – a leader that was walking in Purity. A prophetic picture of what He was doing in the body of Christ.

I have had another encounter with the Lord recently where I saw a little girl before the throne of God.

She was dressed in a beautiful white party dress and she stood before His throne with such love, adoration and worship of Him. She stood wide eyed in awe of His beauty.

Her name is Purity!

I then see Jesus walk to her and He is holding a HUGE BUNCH of balloons in His hand. All the colors of the rainbow. He is smiling from ear to ear. Such deep affection and delight in who she is! His face is glowing and His eyes filled with tears at His love and delight for her.

He bends down and hands her this huge bunch of balloons but I then notice on the bottom of these balloon strings was a HUGE GOLD KEY!!! All of these balloons were tied onto this huge key.

I see Purity standing there before the throne holding this key and there was a RAIN of His Glory falling like gold dust all over her as she held this big bunch of balloons. She was filled with such joy and she started to dance and twirl.

Then Jesus speaks to her:

“I love you! I am so proud of you! I delight in you! My affection and love for you is higher than the heavens and deeper than the seas. I am CELEBRATING YOU! I am UNLOCKING a CELEBRATION over your life. To SEE how I celebrate you for who you are. I am UNLOCKING a greater season of CELEBRATION over you. A celebration of My promises being made manifest, joy and freedom like you have never known and breakthroughs beyond your wildest dreams. Heaviness and struggles you have been facing are melting away in this place as you are moving into greater ease and grace in the flow of My Spirit! Celebration and joy all around!”

His gaze intensifies as He looks at Purity with the fiery flame of His love burning in His eyes for her and He grabs her hand and says..

“And it’s all going to flow and overflow from this deeper place of CHILDLIKE INTIMACY. It is all going to flow and overflow from this deeper place of the CHILDLIKE FAITH.”

“Throne room encounters are before you in this season that will restore any areas where our intimacy has been lost. I will awaken you with My song over you to your identity and My love! I am celebrating you! My Glory is raining down on you! It is from THIS PLACE that you will change the world with Me.”

“The KEY is THIS PLACE of CHILDLIKE INTIMACY!!!”

In this encounter I heard the Lord speaking of the impartation contained in this word for deeper encounters of childlike intimacy with Him and LIVING FROM THAT PLACE and a season shift into greater CELEBRATION!!!

He celebrates you!!!! He is performing a great unlocking in your life of greater breakthroughs in His promises and increasing joy.. But the invitation in this encounter is to receive the greatest treasure of all…

HIM!!!

As we walk in purity of heart before the Lord, may we see God. (Matthew 5:8)

– Lana Vawser

We need Christ! We need an intimate relationship with Him! We need to seek His face! We need to live in His presence! We need a childlike-intimacy with Him! We need to spend time in the secret chambers of God! We need to enter into His rest! From this place of childlike-intimacy, childlike-faith and childlike-rest we reign over all circumstances in our lives!

This brings me to the topic that I really want to discuss in this post:

How to deal with thoughts about spiritual warfare?

This is what the Bible says about how we should spend our time:

Philippians 4:4-8

4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

These Scriptures say it so beautifully. We should be busy with God and His word.

We should not be busy with evil spirits and demonic activities. We should not be busy pondering on water spirits and curses. We should not be busy meditating on doctrines of devils. We should not be pondering on forefathers and the sins of forefathers. We should not be busy with all sorts of strategies facing evil and evil spirits in our lives. We should not be busy pondering on the sins and the negativity of people and even of ourselves. We should actually not be pondering on any kind of evil or any kind of bad things.

We should meditate on the word of God. We should ponder on the goodness of God. We should think of all the good things God did for us. We should remember all the miracles that God performed in our lives. We should pray to God and we should listen to God. We should be praising and worshiping God whenever we get the chance to do so. We should read books about God and we should listen to beautiful songs about God and about what He did for us.

We should not waste one minute harboring bad or negative thoughts of any kind and of any nature. We should not expose our spirits to these toxic influences.

When we spend our time pondering on evil spirits and evil strategies, we will become what we are thinking. What we fear will come over us. Evil spirits will gain control over our minds and over our bodies. We will open doors of unbelief. We will suffer and we will pay dearly for these mistakes.

This post makes it very clear on the way we need to go pertaining to our faith walk with Christ. Today, protect yourself against evil by taking control over your thoughts, your words and your actions! Remember, it all starts with a mere little thought, but look at what it causes in our lives! The little thought becomes a word, and then the word becomes an action, and then the actions makes the thought a reality.

It should have been stopped even before it became a thought. Why is it too late? Because once the thought is conceived and believed, it becomes very difficult to control the tongue. The word that we speak is a natural result of the thought. It is very difficult not to say what we think:

James 3:1-18

1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.

5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

This is what this post is all about right here in verse 6, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell”

This is why our thoughts and our words changes our lives. It has a power in them similar to the creative power in the mouth of God. The only difference is that our power lies in our own circumstances and our own lives. We can change and we can create all sorts of things in our own circumstances and in our own lives.

Our ultimate goal and our first priority should always be to control our thoughts. This is where the battle is won. This is where the victory is secured. Not in all sorts of rituals and all sorts of man-made strategies pertaining to spiritual warfare. True spiritual warfare is not about evil and about evil spirits. It is all about preventing evil from taking over our minds. It is all about not allowing toxic thoughts from germinating in our minds. This is where the battle is won and there is no better place to guarantee victory than in the presence of God.